According to sources inside Yahoo, it appears that our once favourite bookmarking tool no longer fits inside the realms of the Yahoo business model, and as a sunset product, it is likely to be sold off to another company before long. So where do we turn? Well, to the numerous bookmarking applications that exist out on the web, that are more than happy to benefit from the demand and the traffic… Here’s a collection of some of the lesser known alternatives.

Diigo

Can easily export bookmarks with a specific tag or from a list to html or text.

Ability to take screenshots and provide detailed info along with image

Provides free apps for Android and iOS

Probably one of my own personal favourite services, Diigo offers a number of similar features to Delicious. I managed to successfully import all of my bookmarks a while ago using the following import tool, which without a doubt saved me some time. Instead of just bookmarking, Diigo allows you to highlight text and attach sticky notes to specific parts of web pages, via their browser tool. Tags, and networking tools are also available. One of the differences Diigo brings to the table, is its screenshot feature, which makes it easy to archive pages on the web which could change, or disappear. This also supports PDF files, giving you extra security that files will remain available for long periods of time. There are several modes of search as well allowing you to search titles, tags URLs and annotations for any page that you save. Mobile and Ipad support makes Diigo a brilliant alternative to delicious.com.

2010 was very nearly the year that saw XMarks go the way of the Dodo following a period of financial uncertainty. However, lucky for us, it was acquired by LastPass, giving it a new lease of life. Xmarks evolved from Foxmarks, a leading browser add-on for cross-browser bookmark sync, a feature that many of its competitors have not yet mastered. This means that you can now keep all of your browser bookmarks safe between different machines in different locations. Simply install the add-on and away you go. Xmarks also (optionally) integrates with Google results, allowing you to see the reviews that other people have given particular URL’s, which is a godsend in many situations when trying to separate the wheat from the chaff. Import and Export is available for bringing data in from Delicious, and the search feature on the Xmarks website provide a ranking according to the number of votes a URL has received – in much the same way as Delicious. It would be nice to see them evolve further providing a hot list of popular URL’s across the network, to completely tick all the boxes.

Pinboard.in

I first came across Pinboard way back when I was looking at some of the options for reading web pages at a later time, as it integrates closely with ReadItLater. The service automatically bookmarks what you save with Pinboard, which is handy little integration. Pinboard provides a number of useful features that Delicious doesn’t already have, including longer descriptions on your bookmarks. and automatic bookmarking of Tweets, that said – there is no doubt that third party service, Packrati.Us has done a stellar job of integrating Delicious and Twitter to date. Some of the service offerings are added cost, such as full text searching of your bookmarks, but for the measly fee of $25 dollars a year, (on top of the $8.52 subscription) I’m sure that won’t big a massive stumbling block for many. In much the same way as Delicious, Pinboard.in also provides a list of popular URL’s from around the web, a feature that is sure to see more traction under the current Delicious plans. It’s not the prettiest webapp I’ve ever seen, but functionally performs very well, offering users a great alternative.

YourVersion touts itself as a real-time discovery engine, with bookmarking and discovery at the core to its offering. Upon signup Your Version asks you to clarify what sort of topics and interests you have, and would like to curate content around. Once they have that information, web pages are pulled back from various locations and presented to you in a ‘Discovery’ tab, where you can browse and bookmark pages at your leisure. Social votes can be given to the content which is offered up, giving you a further easy reference area under ‘Thumbed’ for great content. Bookmarks can be imported directly from Delicious (although at time of writing, Delicious export API was under heavy load), and the content you find from within Your Version can be easily bookmarked, organised and stored for later, all with one easy click of a button. Whilst some of the URL’s Your Version finds are questionable in quality, the service is nevertheless an interesting take on automated content curation.

Licorize

Licorize is one of the sexier looking bookmarking applications reviewed here, it simply knocks the socks off the competitions with it’s polish. The team have clearly taken time and effort in its creation, and it shows. The main concept of this application is somewhat different than Delicious and other bookmarking apps. It is much more than just another place to keep your bookmarks in one place. Entire projects can be managed inside Licorize, with bookmarks, images todo items, milestones and much more all available to be added inside the interface. Should you wish to group all the URL’s or images which matter to you around a particular project? No problem – licorize is the perfect solution for you. There are a number of browser extensions available for major browsers with plugin support – including a Firefox, Safari and Chrome extension.

For the rest..bookmarklets are used to add content into your web admin panel. You can also share openly on the web arbitrary subsets of your bookmarks, ideas etc. simply by publishing an URL, and sharing with other Team members is also a sinch. Added to that Licorize synchronises with social status updates and more from Twitter, LinkedIn, DropBox, Apture, Evernote, Facebook, Google Mail or any RSS feed giving it a very rounded feature set. For those of you migrating over from Delicious – there’s full support for the import of all your bookmarks. A very exciting web app, with notable features.

Trunkly

Automatically imports any existing links within limitations of source system and then keep them up to date.

Builds a full text search of the source of the link.

Trunkly understands that the way we share and save links has changed somewhat in the past few years. Many of us will be accustomed to now sharing and saving links across the social web on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. That makes bookmarking somewhat defunct in many ways, as anything we share, can also be counted as something we’d like saved for the future. Trunkly has positioned itself right at the heart of that, and categorises and organises links that you have shared across the major platforms, all by simply logging in and authorising the accounts that you currently use. It also indexes those and makes the completely searchable – gone are the days of “where’s that link I tweeted!” From the news that Yahoo are unloading Delicious, they’ve also changed their interface to welcome with open arms all of you looking for a different service to handle your bookmarks. A tidy little offering, that is sure to garner traction for social sharing aficionados.

1R7

When a story breaks like Yahoo offloading Delicious, the web responds at hyperspeed. A clone of Delicious was built in little less than 24 hours. The site, which looks and feels like Delicious, works just as you’d think it would. Bookmarks are saved, tagged and shared from around the Internet. Spotted via a thread at HackerNews, 1R7 is a great example of just how easy it is to take a concept created by a larger business, and quickly churn out a mirror. Although it is in its infancy, with the amount of furore surrounding the Delicious news, it might just gain traction.

Zootool

Zootool is a sleek looking little web app, which would suit designers and developers alike. You can collect both URL’s and images, videos and documents in a similar capacity to Licorize, all from their kick ass interface. A bookmarklet is available for seamless browser integration, and an API exists to allow you to consume the information that you have so carefully saved within the app, ensuring that your information remains open and exportable. Reminiscent of FFFound in many ways, and it wouldn’t be out of place hanging out with these digital scrapbooking websites. Zootool is a perfect blend of functional bookmarking, and pixel perfect loveliness that is sure to make designers sit up and wonder why they hadn’t been using it for all their bookmarking needs.

Notable Mentions

There are a shed load of other alternatives out there, you just have to know where to look. If the above collection still doesn’t tickle your fancy, try a little browse at these other competitors, bring the grand total to 23 potential alternatives.

Great Post but you left out Symbaloo, with over 500k users worldwide and the only touch compatible visual bookmarker we are a great option for someone looking for change. Read more about the future of bookmarking here: http://bit.ly/i2ecgJ

I use http://www.vizited.com. I love the design of the website. It does exactly what it promisses: your bookmarks made izi! Bookmarks are saved as thumbnails, you can tag and search and even share it with your friends.
It’s still in beta, but the makers listen very carefully to wishes and feedback from users. So send in you wishes and find them implemented in the next update.
Check it out. I can recommend it.

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